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[albanach] Re: Nigel Tranter

May his soul rest quietly, and may he tell and hear many a good tale in the Land Beyond

Message 1 of 11
, Jan 13, 2000

May his soul rest quietly, and may he tell and hear many a good tale in the
Land Beyond

RMelhem@aol.com

Message 2 of 11
, Jan 13, 2000

<<Oh how horrible,
I had just found him as an author, and enjoyed looking at Scotland through
his eyes.
Darn rat it.
Do you know how he passed away? Heck i did not even know he was sick.>>
From what I understand he passed away peacefully in his sleep, no illness was mentioned.
Rania

cathal@mindspring.com

... From what I understand he passed away peacefully in his sleep, no illness was mentioned. Rania Mr. Tranter was 90 years of age. Given that as a point of

Message 3 of 11
, Jan 13, 2000

> >

From what I understand he passed away peacefully in his sleep, no illness was mentioned.
Rania

Mr. Tranter was 90 years of age. Given that as a point
of consideration, such a manner of passing was a fitting final
dignity to a life well lived. The only topping consummation would
be that he had a wee dram ere he slept.

Cathal.

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Has anyone read any of Nigel Tranter s books? What did you think of them as far as accuracy for a book to buy for research? Thank you very much in advance

Message 4 of 11
, Apr 26, 2000

Has anyone read any of Nigel Tranter's books? What did you think of
them as far as accuracy for a book to buy for research? Thank you very
much in advance for your comments.
Diana Cosbycosby@...

Sharon L. Krossa

... His novels? They re novels -- depending on your tastes, great for reading for pleasure, not a good idea for research. As with many novelists, unless the

Message 5 of 11
, Apr 26, 2000

At 10:04 AM -0400 4/26/2000, Diana Cosby wrote:

> Has anyone read any of Nigel Tranter's books? What did you think of
>them as far as accuracy for a book to buy for research? Thank you very
>much in advance for your comments.

His novels? They're novels -- depending on your tastes, great for
reading for pleasure, not a good idea for research. As with many
novelists, unless the error happens to be in a field you've studied,
you cannot easily tell what he made up and what he got from history.
*All* novelists invent things, even if they try to stick to
historical facts, because very often we simply don't know all the
historical facts and details a novelist needs.

As for his straight histories -- he's not too bad for someone writing
for the popular market, but there are many better, so why not just
skip him and go right to the good ones? (You should notice a
recurrent theme here -- go to the quality histories used by the
academic historians and just don't bother with the popular histories,
which tend to perpetuate old theories and errors, not take advantage
of more recent scholarship, and oversimplify to the point of error.
Why read an oversimplification of Barrow's book, which may have
introduced errors not present in Barrow, when you can read Barrow
yourself?)